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You have not seen the light. Go to Europe and see the light. <br /> <br />So many have posted that the range for high speed rail is 250 miles, the distance from Paris to Lyons. However, TGV has extended that line northward to Calais where new construction from the Chunnel to London started this year, and even further north soon to Amsterdam, and southward to Marsailles, within the next ten years you should be able to go futher west and south all the way to Seville, and further east of Marsailles to Milan and Venice and south to Rome....TGV and ICE have built high speed track from Paris to Brussels to Hanover, beyond the Ruhr, and are building high speed track all the way to Berlin. ICE has plans to build high speed track from Stuggart thru Munich to connect with the Italian high speed track near Venice. Notice that the EU is building a high speed rail network, a big box with extensions. While ours might be slightly larger in mileage, the same ideal will work here in America. One needs to see the vision. <br /> <br />Now lets look at some distances of the high speed rail plan between the major hub cities in America, and a few cities inbetween. Starting from Texas, the distance from Dallas to Houston is 250 miles (ideal distance), the distance from Dallas to Atlanta is 790 miles (not so ideal), the distance from Dallas to Chicago is 930 miles, the distance from Boston to Washington DC is 440 miles (see we already have Acela high speed rail running further than 250 miles already on the northeast corridor), the distance from Washington DC to Atlanta is 630 miles, and the distance from Atlanta to Miami is 660 miles, the distance from Atlanta to Chicago is 710 miles, the distance from Chicago to New York City is 820 miles, the distance from Chicago to Cleveland is 350 miles, the distance from New York City to Pittsburgh is 390 miles, the distance from New York City to Toronto is 500 miles, the distance from Chicago to Minneapolis is 410 miles. Please notice I built a parralegram, a near box, with a Chicago to Atlanta slash along with extensions to other possible major cities. <br /> <br />A high speed train averaging 150 mph, well below TGV's average, could get you to Chicago from New York City, some 820 miles, in less than 5 and a half hours. The same average speed could get you from Chicago to Dallas in a little more than 6 hours. One can easily catch a train in Dallas at 8 am in the morning and be in New York City at 8 pm in less than 12 hours...that is if one wanted to go that far! Someone can get to Miami from Washington DC in 8 and a half hours. There will no longer be any need for sleepers. <br /> <br />Yes, airliners can beat these times in the air, but considering that Amtrak asks people to arrive a half an hour early, whereas the airliners asks people to arrive at least 2 hours early, and with delays in taking off and landing, and sometimes waiting for a gate, not to mention up to an hour to get your luggage, the high speed train can be competitive in the hauls between these hubs..... The 6 hours to Chicago from Dallas is not in question, but the 12 hours to New York City from Dallas is. However, many may choose to get off in Saint Louis, or Cleveland. <br /> <br />As for the funding, the misguided Senator Hollins plan to upgrade the freight track at $5 billion a year over 10 years could accomplish our goal with dedicated track for high speed passenger rail in 20-25 years. The DOT spends more on airports and highways each year. <br /> <br />While it might cost twice as much, putting passengers on dedicated high speed track is far safer than running passenger trains at 150 mph on freight track with very long slow freight trains running at 50 mph. <br /> <br />DOT has a real problem, lately they have been reconfiguring runways and building terminals there ain't any space left to build more runways and terminals at most of our major airports, much less any airspace at some. i guess we could start building major airports at $7 billion each, the price of Denver's new airport, 100 miles out of cities centers, because it will be close to impossible to build them anywhere near their urban sprawl, or suburbs.....The results of the NIMBY effect. So add another 2 hours just to get to an airport. <br /> <br />
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